<p>Family members are still hopeful that a missing tugboat captain from Bourg is alive. </p><p>Vernon Bumgarner, 59, fell Wednesday night from a boat on the Mississippi River somewhere near Desoto County, Miss., in the state's northwest corner. </p><p>Bumgarner's ex-wife and close friend, Tracy Ainsworth, said Bumgarner was working as a tugboat captain for Caillou Island Towing, a Houma company. Caillou Island declined to comment. </p><p>Bob Nash, chief petty officer with the U.S. Coast Guard, said the “man-overboard” report came in shortly after 6 p.m. Wednesday. </p><p>Crews searched for 20 hours but called off the search Thursday, he said. </p><p>Initial reports indicated he was wearing a life jacket, but that was later determined to be untrue, Nash said. </p><p>Bumgarner was a boating veteran who spent years working offshore, Ainsworth said. She added they are best friends and have a 12-year-old daughter. </p><p>“He went into the Navy when he was 17, and he has been on the water ever since,” Ainsworth said. </p><p>A body was found Friday morning at the Port of West Memphis, Ark., north of where Bumgarner was initially reported missing. </p><p>The body was a white-male who couldn't be positively identified, said Mike Callender, chief investigator for Crittenden County Sheriff's Office in Arkansas. </p><p>Although the body was recovered upriver from the initial man-overboard report, Callender said the body could be Bumgarner's. </p><p>“Strange things happen on that river,” he said.</p><p>Officials would have to wait for fingerprint information to identify the body, Callender said. </p><p>Ainsworth said she had been in contact with the area's coroner who told her the body was not likely Bumgarner's.</p>